Fake Story gets 2500 Diggs and Coverage on Fox News

Fake Story gets 2500 Diggs and Coverage on Fox News view story

nowpublic.com — What a virtual world we travel through sometimes. A (relatively) innocent marketing ploy designed to draw in backlinks for a financial services comparison website in London has stirred up media attention ranging from the front page of Digg to coverage...

This great power of social mediais being made use of. Unfortunately, from my point of view, it is most often being made use of to popularize something from pop culture, to spread stories like this one, to point out the bizarre, and to give people who would not otherwise have one a platform to aggrandize themselves. None of that is bad; it is just too often shallow.

I am somewhat happier about the secondary uses to which our social media is being put. It is popularizing things green, and saving what's left of our planet is critical. It is being used to popularize the candidacy of people like Barach Obama and Ron Paul, true voices for political change. It is being used to get people that should not be there out of jail. It is being used to right wrongs.

To me, at least, this second group of causes is more important than the first. Society, however, is generally more interested in the salacious and titillating than in the substantial, so I am down to thanking my lucky stars that social media is also being used for thing more worthwhile.

Comments (9)

- domfosnz
Wow. The power of social media eh?
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- cbr
It is quite amazing how easy it is to create a story and something that seems to be very much a sign of the times!
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- newshunter
This can't be the first time it's happened
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- allen_mvp
@domfosnz I would say yes, the power of social media.
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- MrCooker
Got to make use of this power. One way or another
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- InternetBusinessDude
thats awesome. How many here would try it....be honest ;-)
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- kdfrawg
This great power of social mediais being made use of. Unfortunately, from my point of view, it is most often being made use of to popularize something from pop culture, to spread stories like this one, to point out the bizarre, and to give people who would not otherwise have one a platform to aggrandize themselves. None of that is bad; it is just too often shallow.

I am somewhat happier about the secondary uses to which our social media is being put. It is popularizing things green, and saving what's left of our planet is critical. It is being used to popularize the candidacy of people like Barach Obama and Ron Paul, true voices for political change. It is being used to get people that should not be there out of jail. It is being used to right wrongs.

To me, at least, this second group of causes is more important than the first. Society, however, is generally more interested in the salacious and titillating than in the substantial, so I am down to thanking my lucky stars that social media is also being used for thing more worthwhile.
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- jasmine
What a Shame.......
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- calinazaret
It's forgivable that a fake story would make it to the front page of a social media site, but FOX NEWS? WTF? Are they even TRYING to research their stories anymore?
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